Who We Are

Working with Communities to End Hunger.
A part of the FISH network of pantries in Knoxville/Knox County.

Hospitality Pantries, Inc., a non-profit, all-volunteer organization, currently provides food packages to over 12,000 families each month from four Knoxville locations based where they are accessible to people most in need. In addition, more than 2000 families receive food bags each month from associate locations in Claiborne County and Knox County. We assist people in other cities and counties planning a response to end hunger in their communities.

Hospitality Pantries organizes at the "grassroots." Pantry leaders from the struggling community surrounding each pantry are joined in this work by people from the wider community. Hospitality Pantries is a coalition of people from diverse backgrounds and religious traditions who have come together around shared values to work on hunger and poverty issues. The combined perspectives and shared values of hospitality create a powerful presence within a community.

Hospitality Pantries emphasize human dignity and human rights. A poster with the following quote hangs in each Hospitality Pantry: "We at Hospitality Pantries care about responding with respect to people asking for food rather than being concerned with who is deserving. Being compassionate to people frees them. To free others is to free ourselves."

Hospitality Pantries are about relationship and people working together toward a more compassionate and just community for all its people. We want to help overcome the root causes of hunger and malnutrition. Individuals, churches, and other organizations provide food and cash donations to purchase food.

In the heart of Knoxville, Tennessee - a community known for its hospitality, we at FISH Hospitality Pantries welcome people to a place where they are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve as members of the human family. Our pantries provide physical nourishment, and we seek to nourish the spirits of those who come by treating them in a non judgemental way.

Each FISH Hospitality Pantry is operated by a diverse group of people representing different economic bakgrounds, religious traditions and ethnicities.